The Ultimate Hider - Dominic McGuire

From Zach Lowe

These guys will fall out of the rotation once a few injured players (Gerald Wallace, Landry Fields, Alan Anderson) return, and it will come as a relief to their respective offenses. To say opposing defenses pretend as if these guys aren't there is only a slight exaggeration. You can constantly find their defenders roaming around the paint, mucking up the primary action in hopes Brooklyn or Toronto must kick the ball to Childress and McGuire, respectively. McGuire is an especially good defender of every position from point guard to power forward, but it's just hard to win playing a "hider" this extreme.

Well, it's true. But it's also an interesting observation. Guys like McGuire may look passable (e.g. "He's just there to rebound and play defense, don't worry about the offense, young man") but when you have a guy who is pretty much useless offensively, it puts a lot more pressure on other players to produce under more defensive scrutiny.

With respect to Derozan, in particular, I think he is forced into a lot of bad shots or tough drives because he has no real good options on the floor. Bargs is affected to a lesser extent but he never passes anyway, so I'm not sure it matters much for him.

It might be better than Andrea Bargnani's, even though the jumper underlying the fake isn't nearly as threatening. (Not that Bargnani's jumper has been threatening during his disastrous start on both ends of the floor, and on the boards.) Kirilenko's fake almost fools me through the television.